The Senate race in Georgia was incredibly close, with the lead seesawing back and forth after the polls closed. The legislature changed the election law in hopes of reducing the African American vote. The polls closed at 7 pm, whereas in many other states the polls stay open later so that working people can vote.
About 10:20 pm, the major networks called the race for Democrat Senator Warnock.
Democrats in the Senate can no longer be held hostage by one member (Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia). Democrats will have a majority on Senate committees instead of equal numbers with Republicans.
This is a big night for the Democratic Party and another defeat for a candidate selected by Trump.
Georgia’s African Americans voted overwhelmingly for Warnock. Whites and Trump Republicans voted for Herschel Walker.
Warnock assembled a multi-racial coalition of blacks and whites.
Walker can now return to his palatial mansion in Texas.
And Republicans will have to figure out what to do with their titular party leader, Trump, who is an albatross around the party’s neck. A three-time loser: 2018, 2020, 2022.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
With apologies to Jimi H
Hey, Joe, where you goin’ with that bill in your hand?
I say, hey, Joe, where you goin’ with that bill in your hand?
Goin’ down, get me some scissors,
throw helpin’ po’ folks in the can.
Buy me one more Maserati.
Trash hope fo’ the common man.
I know it is a tight race, but it came out before the midnight. That was much faster than expected.
Ken, I thought they would be counting votes for days.
With apologies to John Prine
Daddy, won’t you take me up to Marion County,
In north West Virginia, where paradise lay?
Sorry, my son, but you’re too late in asking.
Mr. Joe Manchin’s coal train has hauled it away.
I suspect that the Repugnant Replicant Numbnuticans of the MGOP (the Mostly Greying Old Party), despite their slow wits, have figured out that they have to remove the
Trump the Moronic, Criminal, and Treasonous stumbling block
on the path of Glorious Fascist Leader with his Tan in a Can v2.0,
previously known to the public in his role as Trump Mini-Me.
Allowing Trump actually to be personally prosecuted, FINALLY, for AT LEAST ONE OF HIS LEGION OF SERIOUS CRIMES, is the key there, I suspect. The tool they choose to go forward with needs to be a big crane, ofc, because this is some heavy lifting.
At this point, all but the very dumbest of the dumb (Looking at you, Gaetz, Greene, Jordan) have figured this out.
objectively speaking
Thank goodness……but, Georgians–really?!?! That Herschel got even that close? Embarrassing!
But they’re not embarrassed or shamed! That embarrasses me!
Violent deadbeat Dad as dumb as a stump and as learned as a lamp post
Half of Georgia’s idea of what constitutes an appropriate Senator from that state. Perhaps those folks are right, that he is representative of them.
I think most elected Republicans are afraid of losing Traitor Trump’s supporters if they criticize the traitor in any way. That and the fear that the traitor will turn his base against any Republican that does speak out.
Instead, many elected Repubs despise the monster but are keeping their mouths shut and praying the justice system gets rid of the malignant narcist for them.
What these cowards don’t know that even bankrupt and in prison, the traitor will not stop being the creep that he is. As long as the media shines a spotlight on him and reports every horrible thing he says and does, he will keep performing, as if he is the Joker in a Batman film, even from behind bars.
There are only two ways to silence the traitor and one of them means he ends up sent to the Colorado Super Max where he lives alone in isolation with no way to contact anyone outside of his padded cell. No more Diet Pepsi. No more McDonalds. No more steaks. No more golf.
Wouldn’t this be an interesting scenario: a former president of the United States flies off to live under the protection of his former handlers in Moscow to avoid prosecution and conviction here. And yes, they have McDonalds and golf in Moscow.
I was wrong. McDonalds pulled out of Russia because of the atrocities in Ukraine. They sold all their locations to a Russian businessman who is reopening them with basically the same menus under different names.
Lloyd Lofthouse
So it is Trumps fault and not the Republican Party who nurtured Trumpism since the 1950s,
Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah, EXCELLENT news! From newsweekdotcom, quote: Republican Herschel Walker has conceded Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff election to incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock.
Walker admitted that the votes would not “add up” in his favor as he addressed supporters at campaign headquarters in Atlanta on Tuesday night, shortly after the race had been called by multiple networks. end quote
In this he shows a lot more grace than Trump ever did.
My thought as well
The Frankenstein Monster showed more grace than Trump ever has.
Walker can now return to his palatial mansion in Texas.
The Repugnutican Party. No one does voter fraud like us.
cx: vote fraud
TRUMP: And how about that verdict in New York today? 17 counts. 17. Obama ever have counts like that? I don’t think so. People call me up, they say, Sir, nobody has counts like you.
But note that Trump himself was never a target of the criminal suit.
So he’s still batting 1000 for evading justice.
It’s almost as if he has something on these folks who are (supposedly) investigating him.
It’s almost as if he has long been a Russian intelligence asset and has a lot of dirt from them on a lot of powerful people, huh?
The most interesting comment I heard out of the score keepers on MSNBC was about a County in South Georgia with the most Republican voting electorate in the State. It also has the fewest College Graduates. Which got me thinking that Trumps America / Republican America can best be described as Iran West . Replete with its own morality police and Iranian style guard. I guess theocratic autocracies and wannabe autocratic movements have a lot in Common.
On the other hand Kemp won with a solid 7% margin so it is likely a large portion of College educated are not enlightened but rather just not willing to vote for complete cretins. One only has to look at the wide swings in approval ratings almost overnight on events that may have nothing do to with with actual Government policies to realize that a degree is no a litmus test for educated. The vote in the NYC suburbs which turned the House Red a perfect example . In those suburbs near 50% have completed a Bachelors.
That said this vote means judgeships and little else. Perhaps that is enough? . In a sense it is a good thing for Democrats because we would have discovered it was not just Manchin . if it is policy you wanted blame those supposedly educated voters in NY for not getting it.
Joel, Warnock’s victory is important for many reasons, slim though it was. First, Democrats will have more than 50% of the votes in every committee, removing the GOP roadblocks. Second, it was a huge morale booster for the party. We needed that. Third, it prevented an absurd candidate from entering the Senate. There are probably a dozen more reasons to celebrate. Biden is the first president in many years who did not lose a single seat in the Senate at midterm. Most worrisome, however, is that almost half the voters in GA voted for a completely unqualified candidate. To put it not so politely, Walker got almost no black voters. His base was MAGA white bigots.
The Political and Psychological implications I agree with you on.
In terms of Legislation it means little. The Democrats can get next to nothing through the House. If they could the Senate is unlikely to eliminate the filibuster without the House. Not that the one vote would bring success in that effort.
As for court appointments Biden is having little difficulty appointing Judges . In fact he may have made more appointments than any other President since JFK at this point in his Presidency .
I suppose those those Judiciary committee assignments would be critical, if Thomas and Alito were to join Scalia suddenly a month before the next election.
It strikes me that Walker’s defeat shows the Republicans that there are limits to the strategy of running sports heroes. You might be able to Turbeville Doug Jones in Alabama, but you cannot use the same name recognition strategy in Georgia without getting a candidate that can garner some support from the other side.
Whether this race shows the pendulum of American politics swinging back toward decency, or at least lip service to it, is quite another question. Bobert’s off year struggles were well-documented, but the rise of CRT baiting in DeSantis suggests we are a long way from rational discussion of the issues as a means of producing opinions about voting preferences.
PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s speeches before the first Georgia election were right on…
(paraphrasing) “You’re at the airport. You see Heschel Walking. He’s that football star – one of the best college players every. Hey Herschel, how about you fly the plane for us today?”
This race had the GOP playbook on full display. Walker talked about abortion, God, WOKE, and trans athletes. Not a word on substance. Warnock portrayed himself as a centrist who works on bipartisan deals to solve problems that affect lives. Astonishing that so many white voters fell for the hustle.
Do not forget the Republicans tried really hard to cancel Saturday voting which a number of African American voters use.
Voting isn’t allowed the day after a state holiday. The holiday? The observation of Robert E Lee’s birthday a previous governor renamed “State Holiday.”
”A three-time loser: 2018, 2020, 2022.”
Well, a 65-time loser, if you count the failed lawsuits claiming election fraud. Only person in history to lose the same election 63 times.